Alibaba Group plans to merge its food delivery units and raise funds for the combined business, intensifying a battle with Tencent-backed Meituan Dianping for dominance of China's booming on-demand services market.

Shanghai has a new luxury address, with the opening of Bulgari Hotel Shanghai. Set on the riverbank not far from the city's famous waterfront The Bund, Bulgari Hotel Shanghai is a 48-floor tower that features 82 rooms.

Inditex sales may have risen only 2% in Q1 but it was still a record quarter and without currency exchange effects it would have powered ahead by 7% as both online and stores expansion again proved a winning formula.

A new deal between Harvey Nichols and tech firm Hero sees the luxury retailer offering a physical stores experience to online shoppers, and in its test phase its has driven conversion rates much, much higher.

​The John Lewis department store operation was the star performer at the John Lewis Partnership in the seven days to June 9 as total company sales rose 2.4% to £212.02 million, but the chain rose 4.2%.

Marking the biggest sales dip in 11 months, US consumer spending cooled off in the first quarter, following the holiday season's strong showing. Year-over-year data, however, shows a healthy uptick of 5.4 percent.